Precious

"You know, although Patrick is physically thousands of miles away, we actually meet more often than when he was in Hong Kong." Nixon said.

"Why?"

"We are all busy - Patrick, Pat, and I. When my son is around, we just say hi and bye. Knowing that we have a lot of time together ironically mean that we don’t find a need to sit down and talk. No, there’s nothing serious that we need to discuss. But, as a father, I want to know how he is doing in the school, what friends he is making, what books and movies that he recently watched, and how he find those friends and books and movies. I believe Patrick also wants to know the same things from me. But, when he is around, we feel no urge to talk. We always say next time, and that next time never seems to come.”

I nodded, cannot agree more.

“And now, we have a regular 15 to 30 minutes each week. That’s the precious time that the three of us do make an effort to sit down together and do that little talk. I must say I know my son a lot better since he went to the States!”